The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-10-26
Border Town "reminiscences.

BOruer IOWn "reminiscences.
The visitor at Gettysburg finds him
self face to face with the conundrum:
Does Gettysburg contain the battle
field or the battlefield contain Gettys-
burg? To the credit of the town be it
said that it has profound apprecia-
ton of the event which rescued it
from oblivion. In every house hangs
map of the battlefield and a picture
of the national monument, and fam
lily which is without its personal recol-
lections of those three days events can
hardly hope to be received unreservedly.
Several houses were struck by shells
during the engagement, and the SYM
pathetic visitor can detect in them the
air of modest worth which their fellows
do not share. . Yes, my sister and |
stayed" said our gossip. She was sit
ting with her work under the shade of
the grape arbor, a placid, comely woman
of fifty. "A great many people left.
General Meade gave them a certain
time to get beyond the lines, and after
that no one was allowed to pass. 1t
was hot weather and Mrs. wore all
her furs, to save them, you know. We
did what we could for the soldiers. |
stood in that doorway" pointing to the
outdoor entrance to the cellar, al
most ali one day buttering and cutting
bread for the soldiers They just took
the slices as they hurried by, and we
were kept busy. When the shells be-
gan to strike the town we went down
into the cellar for safety. We three
(my sister and Miss - and y were
down there when a young Union
soldier-he was nothing but boy-ran
down the steps and cried to us to help
him to hide; that the rebels were close
after him. There wasn't a place where
a mouse could have hidden, and before
we had time to do anything, even if
anything could be done, two or three
rebels came tumbling down the cellar
stairs. The Union boy resisted, of
course, but one of them wounded him
with bayonet and dragged him away"
Shells once did hiss through the air
here, and houses and churches were
crowded with the wounded and the
roads ran with blood, but the village in
these twentv-odd years has effectually
recovered its composure. 1t is quiet,
staid and well-ordered. "But why
their yard? What is that pile of rub
bish doing in that center of the
lawn?" "Rubbishl" exclaimed our COM
panion, in a tone which indicated that
she had mentally uncovered in the pres
ence. Relics from the battlefield"
We looked again. They were relics-a
reverential collection of rusty canteens
and old shoes. "reminiscences in this
region are as plenty as peaches, and
they are yet in that happy middle state
when they are more definite than ira
dition and have not all vet been
mapped out with neat tablets, as New
England has dutifully pinned down the
revolution to the earth. THAT man, ="
said lady, counted the rebel troops
as they passed through Chambers burg,
though they took every precaution to
prevent its being done. He took up
carelessly a handful of corn from an
open bag, and stood with his hands in
his pockets watching them pass, and
for every battalion he Just let a grain
of corn slip through his fingers into his
! pockets. We were good Union peo-
! Pile, of course, but our neXt-door neigh
| bors were bitter secesh. In this par
| llCuldI pdIl VI Mai Slunu tlc pcoplC
were about equally divided, and soldiers
of one army or the other were passing
through continually. l have seen
skirmishes right here in the street in
front of our house, and one day, when
some Union soldiers were riding
through, one of the women next door
slipped the muzzle of gun through
the window Stats and shot the leader.
We were reused twice in the night to
cook for hungry soldiers. One might
Just expect such things, and be thank
! full if that were all. There is a woman
who did her best" She refined up in
front of tiny milliner's shop, behind
whose counter stood a little elderly
woman, with fine, quiet, resolute face.
" She had a wounded officer hidden in
her house for weeks, and not even one
of her family knew of it. He came
there late one night and she took care
of him, and when he recovered got him
a horse and helped him off to the Union
lines again" The speaker laughed
softly. she saved her goods cleverly
once. She had Just gotten in her spring
stock when the rebels took possession
of the town. They came to her house
but she had had her boxes put in the
cellar and had lighted the benzine un-
der a pan of sulphur. OF course they
couldn't go down through that smoke
and she merely reminded them that
she was a milliner, and that hats
were bleached with sulphur. "-BOStOn